Holiday specialist gears up to take full advantage of Thomas Cook collapse

Online holiday firm On The Beach has geared up to take full advantage of the gap in the market created by the collapse of Thomas Cook.

The Manchester firm issued a trading update this morning.

On The Beach said that the price of holidays has gone up in the wake of Thomas Cook’s demise.

The firm, which is holding its AGM today, added that there has been a fall in the number of holidays on offer.

The company said there is unprecedented opportunity to sieze market share in the beach travel market following the failure of Thomas Cook.

On the Beach has more than doubled its offline marketing spend to drive awareness of its brand.

The firm expects that a proportion of this investment will payback in the second half of the financial year.

Alongside the extra marketing On The Beach has also focused on price competitiveness to continue to drive long term market share gains.

The firm said reduction in overall capacity in the market following the Thomas Cook callapse has led to significant year on year seat price increases for all departures.

This seat capacity shortfall is further accentuated by continuing delays in Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft returning to active service.

Seat pricing is not expected to fully normalise in the current financial year.

Despite the significant increase in the prices of holidays across the market and the fall in seat capacity, the immediate actions taken by the group to capture market share are helping to drive strong sales growth for summer 2020 departures.

The group will report interim results for the six months to 31 March 2020 on 12 May 2020.

Simon Cooper, chief executive of On the Beach Group, said: “The actions we have taken in the first four months of the new financial year have accelerated our market share gain and mean we are well prepared to take advantage of capacity returning into the market.

“Our incremental investment into offline marketing activity is helping to drive significant growth in awareness of the brand nationally and we are delighted with the performance of the Classic Package brand in its first year post launch. We look forward to providing a more detailed update on progress at the Group’s Interim Results.”